


It’s Too Cold

by SnekyDoodle



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Corrupted Steven Universe, Corruption, Hurt/Comfort, Jasper is a good person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22438231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnekyDoodle/pseuds/SnekyDoodle
Summary: Faced with this horrid disease, Steven flees his home.
Relationships: Jasper & Steven Universe
Comments: 4
Kudos: 214





	It’s Too Cold

_ There was so little time. _

_ The remains of what had been left shattered with their delicate glass, their shards raining, sending fresh cuts across the hard scale that grew hard across his formerly soft skin.  _

_ The primal urge to disappear away from sight was stronger than ever, and the instincts to tear everything apart only further increased by the passing days that seemed to fade away like sand through rifts in fingers. _

Steven looked out through his window sorrowfully. The morning sun twittered brightly in the dawn sky, a coat of rich oranges and yellows bathing the world in an echo of warm fire, soft to the touch, yet burning if you let yourself succumb to it for too long.

His hand - could he even call it a  _ hand _ anymore? - rested against the delicate glass, eyes gazing at the fiery blaze with longing heavy in the seeming stagnant air.

The claws on his hands scraped against the glass, a small  _ shink _ following in suite.

The gems hadn’t let him leave since.. The first situation.

_ “Steven, calm down!” Pearl’s voice rang heavily over the crashing of material against the cold, hard floor. Steven’s chest heaved with uncontrolled, laboured breathing. He could see the gems staring at him through the debris and dust with wide, terrified eyes. _

_ “No!” He screamed, a blast of pure energy sending shockwaves through the beach house they resided in. “I can’t-- I CAN’T!--” _

_ “Steven!” Came Garnet’s inevitable yowl. “You need to control this power! Don’t let yourself fall to th--” _

_ Garnet didn’t have the chance to finish, a shrill shriek escaping Steven’s throat. _

_ “nNnnrRrrRRR sT _ **_oOOPP IIIITTT!_ ** _ ” _

_ He screamed his loudest yet, throwing the panicked gems into the already torn walls, sending cracks through the delicate, splintered wooden floors, which stood no match for pure diamond energy. _

_ Steven stood panting, fists clenched, eyes wide and infuriated, his agony deep in the pinkened depths. _

_ It wasn’t the thing that stood out the most. _

_ Small patches of a pinkish purple dotted his peachy, pink hued skin. His bared teeth showed sharpened,  _ too _ sharp, edges, his canines and molars all brought to a carnivorous point. Through his temples was the start of small horns, his forehead the same as dots of blood dribbled their way down to his chin. _

_ The dust from the outburst cleared, and the gems could only stare in horror as the hue died off their  _ precious  _ little boy. _

_ It didn’t take long for it to click with Steven. _

_ He had taken only one glance down, one long look at the start of pink claws on his fingertips, and a dam seemed to break inside of him. _

Steven had thought many times about running away from here, through Beach City and to the forest. Maybe he could stay with Jasper a while, after all the quartz warrior hadn’t turned down the offer to come back.

Surely she’d understand, she had gone through the exact same thing he was going through.

Maybe she’d stop the monster before it bubbled to the surface.

Steven found himself nodding his head the more he thought about it.

The gems supervised him often, yet they still had their duties in Little Homeschool, and they had put trust in Steven not to run out of the house at any random moment.

Their trust.

That trust was the only thing he had going for him right now.

His eyes turned downwards to the stairs, where he could hear footsteps echoing up.

It seems that dinner was ready.

Maybe he could eat today.

_ Fear was a bit of an understatement when it came to the emotions swirling in the gem’s thoughts. _

_ Not long after the..  _ situation, _ the gems called upon Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot to come and make sense of the situation. _

_ It would be a lie to say there was no hope in the beginning. Since Steven wasn’t a full gem, most everyone believed that  _ maybe,  _ just  _ maybe,  _ healing this would be easier than a full light projection. _

_ Their sorrow and misery combined when they had realized nothing worked, not even the diamond oils, was almost as strong as Blue Diamond’s aura itself. _

_ It only made the disease spread across him, the horns started in small nubs growing in size, much to the gem’s panic. _

_ He remembered vividly Amethyst running out of the room with a choked sob, Pearl reaching for her, yet bringing her hand down to cover her mouth as if she too wished to do the same, but forced herself to stay because  _ Steven _ needed someone there beside him in such an awful state. _

_ The feeling of him being a burden only furthered its progress. _

It was time. The gems had just left for Little Homeschool, and Beach City was just waking up.

Steven forced himself to his feet, maneuvering on all fours like he had been for the past week. His dark eyes scanned the repaired Beach House surrounding him, and he let his claws tear across the floor as he made his was to the Diamond Base.

_ Something to remember me by _ .

Carefully, he slunk up the stairs, butting his head against the hand print that granted him access. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise when it didn’t work, but Steven couldn’t help the small jolt down his spine when it flashed red for a second.

It took him a bit too long to remember to use his hands to open it, so using the hand that had the least changes, he opened the door and sauntered inside.

Once inside his garden, Steven padded over to a familiar flower. A Bluebell, softer than the lapping of lukewarm water, prettier than the haunting echoes of a long forgotten garden.

Carefully, as if the flower was a delicate little birdling, Steven wrapped his jaws around the stem. He slowly lifted his head, edging up slightly, slightly more, until the flower broke from its roots with a light  _ pop _ .

Steven was leaving this place behind before the night shone the moon.

He was taking Connie with him.

_ The Diamond’s hadn’t had much of a different reaction to the dilemma that Steven was having. They tried the fountain, renewing the Diamond Oils, hell, they even tried to use their aura’s on him all at once before the gems stopped them reasoning that it was too dangerous to Steven’s “fragile organic body”. _

_ The situation only became more somber when, including Blue and Yellow, even  _ White  _ began to cry. Seeing such a powerful being who had never shown much emotion before breaking down pricked at some nerves in Steven’s heart, and much to his disarray, the horns growing steadily on his temples and forehead pushed their way through even more skin, the spots of pink and purple spreading even more across the soft flesh. _

_ Spinel had taken it particularly hard, too. It came as a shock to Steven at first to see her all optimistic and full of hope that  _ something  _ would work, her energy made even him believe it for a while too. _

_ And then they all at once realized that nothing  _ would _ , and Steven could only watch as she broke down, muttering over and over again how she “was going to lose everyone again” along with other entangled cries too quiet and fast to decipher. _

_ He hated to admit he felt relieved when Pearl took it upon herself instead of Steven to comfort the spiraling gem, every now and then he’d glance back to see her holding Spinel tight, running her hands through her soft hair, whispering things that Steven couldn’t quite pick up, yet knew were comforting. _

_ That was when Steven decided no one else needed to know about this. _

_ Anymore people suffering because of him would only turn him faster into the monster he didn’t want to think that he was turning into. _

The trek up the hills no longer took as much effort as it once did. Either Steven had grown used to it, or his new..  _ form  _ gave him extra stamina.

Going through Beach City had been a hassle, he had been seen by PeeDee, who didn’t hesitate to scream his name and ask what had happened to him.

He didn’t give him an answer, only a tangled roar before he leapt up with his powerful hind legs and tore for the edge of town, the forest dead set in his mind.

For a while he had a few humans and quartzs chasing him, all screaming at him to come back. None of the were a match for a Diamond, though, and Steven easily outran all of them far before he made it to the green paradise he had been dreaming of.

No doubt the gems would be on his tail, but he suspected as much that they’d come looking for him immediately after realizing he was missing, the fact he had been spotted just made it where they’d look sooner.

He turned his mind to the task at hand, eyes narrowing to adjust to the mellow light in the shaded trees, sunlight streaming in through thick branches, assaulting his unsuspecting eyes whenever he’d stepped over a patch of burning yellow.

It hadn’t been long before he came across the familiar cave entrance, slightly covered with a deep blue blanket.

And it hadn’t been long before he heard the familiar gruff voice calling out to him in an annoyed tone, before it cut off with a laughingly high pitched shriek.

In an instant he felt Jasper leaping down beside him, tilting his morphed head up he caught eyes with the soldier. The confusion and fear in her eyes came as a surprise at first, yet he shook it off and bumped his head against her leg, as if he was a cat welcoming his owner home from a long day at work.

A rough hand trailed across his back, lining the rough spindles and spines cutting through it. Diamond-hard spikes that could cut through even the toughest of opponents.

After a few seconds of silence, studying him, Jasper spoke up.

“What..  _ happened  _ to you..?” The question came in hesitance, uncertainty not even considered to bother basking in her tone, an underlying worry and concern just carefully behind.

Steven’s pink pupils glanced back down to the rocks below him, his long tail moving to wrap around his paw--  _ hands  _ as to cover up the sharp pinkened claws.

“I made a mistake. And I paid for it.” was all the hybrid replied with.

He watched Jasper narrow her eyes and lean down to lift him like someone would to an injured cat. Carefully, she trotted to her cave entrance, brushing the blue material aside she strided in the dark depths.

He was set down on a rather mossy nest, Jasper shifted to st beside him, leaning against the rocky wall.

“Tell me what  _ actually  _ happened, Steven.” Jasper more or so demanded, staring at him with her glowing amber eyes. “Someone like you wouldn’t just  _ corrupt  _ out of nowhere, and I doubt you went around fusing with corrupted gems like I did.”

Steven looked away, claws tapping repeatedly on the stone below him. “I.. I kept secrets.” He whispered out in a low voice. “I didn’t want anyone to know..”   
“ _ What  _ secrets?”   
Steven winced. Of course she’d press.

“Feelings. Emotion..” He turned away. “You were right about me. I’m pitiful.. useless.. Other people weren’t the ones needing help..”   
A tear made its way down his cheeks.

“It was just  _ me _ ..”

He closed his eyes, a choked sob escaping him. Steven curled in on himself, arms moving to wrap around himself in a self-hug.

Yet the arms that he felt move around him weren’t his own, and with a small squeak he felt the Kindergarten Quartz That Could envelop him in a warm hug.

It wasn’t forced or awkward. Steven could just  _ tell _ , it was genuine.

“.. You really think all of that about yourself?” Came a soft ask. Steven sniffed, nodding into her chest with a ragged intake of air, releasing in an even more ragged cry.

Again, just like a cat, Jasper ran her hand through his hair. “Steven, if you never came into existence, did you really believe everything would turn out like this,  _ without  _ you?”   
Steven giving no answer prompted Jasper to continue.

“Your mother would have never made amends with Homeworld, would have never even thought about achieving peace with them.”   
Again, Steven’s only response was a low whimper and more tears.

“But  _ you  _ did. You single handedly saved gemkind, and gave peace to the empire. Without you, I’d still be bubbled away, locked in corruption, and so would every other gem in that damned war that fought against their own leader. This planet would have been destroyed long ago.”   
Steven felt Jasper move her hand to force Steven to look up at her.

“And all of this time, you spent so long believing you needed to help other people, you forgot that you needed to help yourself.”

The tears started up faster than ever as Steven let what Jasper said sink in.

And more than so, Steven was starting to realize, she was  _ right _ .

He didn’t reply with words, just a shaky, small nod and sharply breathing in.

“You’ve gotten through everything, Steven, and I promise. You’ll get through this too.”

For the first time in months, Steven felt just a prick of hope.

He could get through this.

  
  
  



End file.
